MIT Offers Picture-Centric Programming To the Masses With Sikuli

coondoggie writes "Computer users with rudimentary skills will be able to program via screen shots rather than lines of code with a new graphical scripting language called Sikuli that was devised at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. With a basic understanding of Python, people can write programs that incorporate screen shots of graphical user interface (GUI) elements to automate computer work. One example given by the authors of a paper about Sikuli is a script that notifies a person when his bus is rounding the corner so he can leave in time to catch it." Here's a video demo of the technology, and a paper explaining the concept (PDF).

Re:FrontPage?

[gad_zuki!]

>And we all know FrontPge went on to become the defacto standard for web development....that had to be fixed by an real web developer later.

Do you want to democratize technology or just have it controlled by elites? Non-techies want to do things like scripting and web design without paying a professional, the same way they want to fix things around the house or fix the car. When it comes to small or easy jobs, a non-expert can do just fine. Why should we piss on the DIY'ers because they dont have a Master's degree in CS? Frankly, a lot of computer stuff is pretty easy and paying someone is ridiculous.

While Im certainly no fan of Frontpage, I feel that it wasnt much worse than Mozilla Composer or other WSIWYG html composers.

Re:My grandmother knows python

[AardvarkCelery]

If a friend wanted to learn just enough programming to do a few light chores, what would you recommend? Python is arguably one of the easiest languages to learn. Randy Pausch used it for Alice [alice.org], which has been successful for teaching middle school girls how to program. So if "computer users with rudimentary skills" means rudimentary programming, then that works for me.